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Browsing by tag: cheap thrills

Kings & Queens Sultan of Granada Lemon Flower Body Scrub & Naturopathica Lemongrass Mimosa Body Scrub ~ scented body products

Posted by Jessica on 18 September 2010 24 Comments

Kings & Queens Sultan of Granada Lemon Flower Body ScrublemonsNaturopathica Lemongrass Mimosa Body Scrub

If you read a few women’s fashion/beauty magazines per month, you’re probably familiar with the kind of feature in which a high-end item is paired with a more attainable, bargain-price item — “Splurge/Steal,” “Lust/Must,” and so on. Sometimes I consider using this device to recommend pairs of body products, except I don’t usually come across direct comparisons. These two body scrubs, however, do fall into a similar category. Both have citrus-floral scents and both are packaged in tubes (my strong preference for scrubs), but they’re sold in different markets at very different price levels.

Kings & Queens is a more widely-distributed spin-off line for Korres, the Greek skincare and makeup company. The Kings & Queens body products claim to be enhanced “with royal herbs,” and like the rest of the line, the Sultan of Granada Lemon Flower Body Scrub is “enriched with royal mix [sic] of pomegranate, blue lotus and malachite natural extracts.” These extracts happen to fall towards the end of the ingredients list, after the water and sodium laureth sulfate and plastic exfoliant beads, but that’s not really unusual for a product in this price range. Because the exfoliating particles are suspended in what amounts to a lightweight shower gel…

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Thymes Ambersweet Orange Body Lotion ~ scented body products

Posted by Jessica on 12 September 2010 17 Comments

Godward's Dolce Far Niente

A number of years ago, when I still shopped for most of my toiletries at drugstores, I received a gift of some fancy lavender-fragranced body cream in a prettily decorated tube. It was one of the first upscale bath-and-body items that I had ever tried, and it was made by Thymes — or rather, The Thymes, as the company was then called. I thoroughly enjoyed it, because it felt and smelled so different from my usual products, and since that time I’ve had a fond feeling for Thymes (even though the Filigree collection, my eventual favorite, was discontinued last year).

The Ambersweet Orange collection is a fairly recent addition to the Thymes range of body products and fragrance, and its Body Lotion sounded like an appropriate pick for early autumn. According to Thymes, in this lotion “the healing properties of creamy yogurt and the warm blush of honey combine to richly moisturize your skin while the harmonizing aromas of delicate orange blossom, creamy almond milk, tonka bean and vanilla swirl gently in the zest of nutmeg, sandalwood and cardamom for a natural goodness that radiates well-being.” Ambersweet Orange Body Lotion gives off a gently sweet almond scent when it’s first applied…

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Bee, Black Bonni, and Buxom by Wiggle Perfume ~ fragrance review

Posted by Jessica on 29 August 2010 34 Comments

Wiggle Bee perfume

Ah, the summer fling. I was never very good at short-term romances; I always got too attached. Still, late August seems like the right time to test out a few scented frivolities on a whim. I can love them and leave them, or if I feel a lasting chemistry, I can purchase a full-size bottle for fall. Wiggle Perfume has been one of my recent flirtations. I recently went through a set of samples from this indie perfumer based in Olympia, Washington, and several blends caught my fancy.

Bee (shown above) is “a honey-sweet outdoorsy blend” with additional notes of gardenia, neroli, cut grass, oakmoss, and woodsmoke. On the skin, it’s primarily a true-honey fragrance, and I’d recommend it to anyone who’s been on the hunt for a honey-based scent. The creamy-woodsy accent of the other notes keeps Bee from straying too far into Pooh-Bear territory, so it ends up being a rich but not candy-like gourmand. It also has amazing endurance: it lasted through a nine-to-five day on my wrist…

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Pacifica California Star Jasmine ~ perfume review

Posted by Robin on 24 August 2010 60 Comments

Pacifica California Star Jasmine spray perfume

If you’re looking for a cheap thrill at the perfume counters, you’d be hard-pressed to do better than something from Pacifica. Since expanding into personal fragrance in 2007, they’ve launched 22 straightforward, reliably wearable scents available in a variety of formats, including spray perfume ($22 for 29 ml), solid perfume ($9 for 10 g) and the newer roll-ons ($12 for 10 ml). The packaging is basic but fun, and they’re reasonably easy to find: Sephora has them, and I see the line in gift stores here and there.

The California Star Jasmine fragrance is their latest offering. As all of you gardeners already know, star jasmine (sometimes called Confederate jasmine) is not the same plant as true jasmine. It’s a vine with clusters of small jasmine-like white flowers, and in Southern California, you often see it used as a ground cover or trained to spill over a wall. I never grew it myself and my memory of the smell is hazy — all I can tell you is “good” and “sweet” — but Pacifica’s founder, Brook Harvey-Taylor, calls the perfume “a love note to the Southern California neighborhood where she grew up”.

California Star Jasmine opens on a slightly green fizzy citrus…

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Avril Lavigne Forbidden Rose ~ fragrance review

Posted by Jessica on 21 August 2010 27 Comments

Avril Lavigne Forbidden Rose perfume advert

First things first: there is no rose in Forbidden Rose, the second fragrance release from Canadian pop-rock singer Avril Lavigne. The notes for Forbidden Rose, whose theme is “Dare to Discover,” are listed as red apple, white peach, bourbon pepper, lotus flower, apple blossom, heliotrope, pomegranate, vanilla, chocolate and sandalwood. The rose of the title is a “symbolic black rose,” an emblem of fantasy, and the commercial for Forbidden Rose features a thorny rose amidst visual references to fairy tales both old (“Sleeping Beauty,” “Beauty and the Beast”) and new (the “Twilight” series and Tim Burton’s “Alice in Wonderland,” for which Lavigne recorded a song).

If Lavigne’s first fragrance release, Black Star, was a pop-punk single that you could dance to, then Forbidden Rose is a more introspective ballad…

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